It appears one of the newest big things in golf travel marketing is the “golf trail".

It sounds pretty catchy, right? Traveling one small nitch of countryside, playing a series of courses that speak to you like chapters of a book. Maybe the trail charts a designer’s growth from first design to later masterpiece.

Then there’s the ad-wizards who look at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama and love the ring to it so much they try to fabricate their own.

Arthur Hills is a very capable course designer with a solid reputation nationally, but trying to market 12 of his Michigan courses as a Golf Trail is seriously stretching it. There’s no “trail” about the Arthur Hills golf trail. It’s six courses in Metro Detroit and then six others scattered around the edges of the state.

It also appears there is zero incentive for getting on the trail as well. How about if I play the first 11 courses on the trail, you give me a $200 discount at Bay Harbor or at the very least give me a complimentary plastic divot repair tool for my troubles driving a good 1000 miles around the entire state?

And one more thing: his hottest new design in Michigan, Shepherd’s Hollow, isn’t even a trail “member course". Can someone explain that omission?

Also, be sure to check out the Idaho Golf Trail, SLO County Golf Trail, Davy Crockett (he golfed?) Golf Trail, and coming soon: the Brandon Tucker Golf Trail, handpicked by me as the courses within 40 miles of my house with the fastest golf carts.